Speakers Abstracts: East Turkistan’s Right to Sovereignty and A Global Security Imperative
ABSTRACTS
in alphabetical order by surname
China’s Global Agenda: The Uyghur Genocide as an Evident Step Towards Neo- Fascist Domination
Charles Burton
Senior Fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, European Values Center for Security Policy.
He has published extensively on Chinese and North Korean affairs and Canada-China relations and has been commissioned to write reports on matters relating to Canada’s relations with China for agencies of the Government of Canada. Charles is a frequent commentator on Chinese affairs in newspapers, radio and TV.
Until the 1950s, the Chinese Communist Party under Chairman Mao Zedong maintained that the People’s Republic of China was a Marxist republic that comprises the peoples of four great nations: Han, Mongol, Tibetan and Uyghur. The regime early-period propaganda claimed that the Communist Party political program respected the distinctive civilizational traditions of history, culture and language of each of these non-Han nations. The People’s Republic of China, besides setting up provincial level governments, also created “autonomous regions” where the language and culture and customs of the Mongolians, Tibetans and Uyghurs were to be protected under local governments led by their own people.
The realization of “the lofty prospect of Communism” as the political raison d’être for the Chinese Communist Party’s rule of China is now in abeyance. The Chinese Communist Party has changed its focus to be more “Chinese” rather than “Communist” in order to maintain political legitimacy. Xi’s ideology is that China is a single nation with a single culture, a civilizational state.
So extreme policies to “take the Uyghur out of the Uyghur” amounting to a systematic program of genocide have been adopted. “Re-education camps” imprison Uyghurs and subject them to torturous ideological training in Mandarin and where they are forbidden to practice Islam. Uyghur children have been are sent to residential schools for education in Mandarin curricula in Han culture. They are taught a history that falsely claims that Xinjiang has always been ruled by the Chinese emperor.
Unconfirmed reports show that the Chinese Communist Party expects that full assimilation of all “national minorities” will be achieved by 2060.
The Han as a master race is the true meaning of Xi Jinping’s much touted doctrinal promise of a “common destiny for all mankind.” It is about the annihilation of rich civilizational traditions and genocide of peoples trapped in the People’s Republic of China, nothing more and nothing less
The Chinese Regime’s Efforts to Deny and Cover up the Uyghur Genocide
Magnus Fiskesjö, Cornell University
His research interests include political anthropology, ethnic relations, archaeology, and heritage issues, above all in East and Southeast Asia. He recently published a book on the Wa people of the China/Burma frontier region, entitled _Stories from an Ancient Land: Perspectives on Wa History and Culture_ (Berghahn, 2021), and several articles on the ongoing genocide in East Turkistan (Xinjiang), China.
When the Chinese regime launched its first major wave of detentions of Uyghurs and other Turkic nationalities, in early 2017, it was clearly pre-meditated, budgeted and planned. However, not enough attention had been devoted to covering up the genocide.
As a result of this failure, the Chinese authorities quickly found themselves on the defense internationally, when the massive new detention camp system was revealed to the world through satellite imagery analysis and by way of eyewitness accounts. China was heavily criticized internationally for its collective mass punishment of innocent people, such as in the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in August 2018, and so on.
The Chinese regime, which had originally flatly denied the existence of the camps, now scrambled to backtrack and change its story, admitting the existence of the camps, but arguing they were vocational training centers designed to steer Uyghurs away from terrorism. They tried to back up this new version by constructing fake “schools” to which they brought gullible foreign visitors, diplomats and journalists.
Despite the many obvious lies involved, this campaign of lies had some success — I will discuss why some of these visitors, even the leadership of the United Nations and its Committee for Human Rights, as well as some of China’s supporters internationally, all latched on to these Potemkin structures.
In contrast, in the next stages of the genocide, the Chinese regime has paid much stronger attention to covering up. The initial mass detentions in brainwashing camps were followed by transfers of detainees to forced labor in Chinese industries; mass transfers to to prisons; as well as the mass transfer of detainees’ children to Chinese boarding schools; while Uyghur cultural life has been demolished. All of these elements of the pre-planned genocide are being carried out with great care for blocking journalists and other independent visitors, blocking the escape of more witnesses, and obscuring what is happening, by other means — by stopping to publish government statistics; by making it impossible to track company supply chains; and so on, including also by skilfully planting language in foreign media worldwide. They now also recruit large numbers of Chinese domestic tourists and even foreign tourists to visit pre-arranged routes, where they can be convinced of the regime’s false version of reality.
With unlimited staff and financial resources, it is no wonder that the Chinese efforts to deny and cover up the ongoing genocide are partially successful. It is more important than ever to point out the lies and provide the world with the true story of what the Chinese regime is doing.
The Interrelationship of Diplomacy and Intelligence in Building Security Cooperation for East Turkistan
Jeffrey Smith
Chief Security Advisor for Mayfly Consulting, a strategic support company based in Kentucky, USA. He has worked across Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, advising both private companies and NGO’s in the formation of security planning. His specialization is the incorporation of both counter and protective intelligence methodologies into a broader framework of layered security systems.
The Uyghur people of East Turkistan, like many other nationalities, are facing continued and ever increasing levels of political harassment and human rights violations by the Chinese security services. This is most egregiously evident in the ongoing genocide in East Turkistan itself (which the Chinese government chooses to call “Xinjiang” or “New Frontier”). The Uyghur people having gone into diaspora to find safety and to organize politically for the independence of their country, have made numerous attempts to build constructive political alliances in the countries they have found refuge.
In spite active political organizing and positive media coverage related to their struggle, the Uyghur people have not as yet been able to secure significant security assurances for East Turkistan. This is the case even though East Turkistan is of natural strategic interest to many countries who now find themselves in a significant security competition with China. One of the clearly identifiable reasons for this is the direct and forceful intervention of the Chinese security services. This is especially true of their use of terror and propaganda to threaten and divide Uyghur political organizing in the diaspora.
This paper looked to find ways of resolving this problem by reviewing the current and historical literature related to the disciplines of both diplomacy and intelligence. I also looked at a number of case studies related to the achievement of various levels of autonomy and independence by ethnic and national groups in the 20th and 21st century. Finally, I used my own field research and experience built up over the last twenty years. This included direct experience with the Uyghur people in the diaspora in Turkey, the EU and the U.S. since 2015.
The most important finding of this paper is the essential interrelationship between diplomacy and intelligence. That each is the inseparable context of the other. That the building of long term trusted political relationships is necessarily based on truthful, accurate facts and information. Also, that a functional liaison for intelligence sharing must be based on a shared set of values arrived at by clear communication across language and culture.
This finding has many implications for the Uyghur people in their struggle for an end to the genocide and the independence of East Turkistan. The most important of which would be the building of serious security cooperation with host countries as well as other ethnic and national groups persecuted by the Chinese security services. This would include helping to identify and confront threats posed by the Chinese security services in the EU, Central Asia and the Indo Pacific. My paper lays out a road map for steps in that direction.
Understanding East Turkistan’s Right to Sovereignty through legal and historical perspective
Rukiye Turdush,
Human rights activist, writer and researcher at Center for East Turkistan National interest. Author of East Turkistan’s Right to Sovereignty: Decolonization and Beyond. Her research interest include genocide study, self-determination in international law and Chinese colonialism in East Turkistan.
East Turkistan has never been part of China until people’s Republic of China’s Invasion in 1949. East Turkistan Independent Republic established several years before the emerging of People’s Republic of China. China seriously violated state territorial integrity in international law, invaded East Turkistan in 1949. Today, East Turkistanian people are facing to vanish in their homeland. The peaceful demand for their basic human rights is harshly rejected by China, as China intent to destroy them. Following China’s genocidal policies that implemented starting 2017, as many as 2-3 millions of Uyghurs were incarcerated in concentration camps;[1] 3 million people were forcibly transferred to labor intensive industries for forced labor;[2] more than 900,000 Uyghur kids were removed from their home and separated from their parents, origin, religion, language and culture;[3] every Uyghur women become the strict target of China’s sterilization policy and Uyghur population drastically reduced since 2017.[4] What is happening in East Turkistan is clearly genocide as China intentionally, knowingly and willingly implemented its policies despite the fatal consequences. This underscores the stark reality that Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the region have been left no other alternatives than independence to ensure survival of its nation. End China’s current ongoing genocide and ensure peace can be achieved legally through supporting East Turkistan’s claim for external self-determination according to the principles of international law. However, International world community followed the wrong and distorted history of East Turkistan, reject the actual name, real identity of East Turkistanian people and seen China’s illegal occupation of the region as a legal since 1949. In this presentation I’ll discuss what was the actual status of East Turkistan and why it should be recognized by the international community as an illegally occupied nation and why East Turkistan must restore its independent status and how its related to global security.
[1] Adrian Zenz, “Public Security Minister’s Speech Describes Xi Jinping’s Direction of Mass Detentions in Xinjiang,” China File, May 24, 2022, accessed May 25, 2022, https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/features/public-security-ministers-speech-describes-xi-jinpings-direction-of-mass#:~:text=In%20his%20speech%2C%20Chen%2C%20like,strategy%20for%20Xinjiang.”%20This%20is ; Zak, Doffman, “U.S. Accuses China of Detaining Up To 3M Xinjiang Muslims in‘Concentration Camps’,” Forbes, May 4, 2019, accessed December 26, 2021, https://www.forbes .com /sites /zakdoffman /2019 /05 /04 /xinjiang -u -s -accuses -china -of -putting -up -to -3m-muslims -in -concentration -camps/ #1dfa2ade72b1. [2] Adrien Zen, “The Xinjiang Papers: An Introduction,” Uyghur Tribunal, November27, 2021, accessed January 1, 2022, https://uyghurtribunal .com /wp -content /uploads /2021/11 /The -Xinjiang -Papers -An -Introduction -01 .pdf. [3] Amy Qin, “In China’s Crackdown On Muslims, Children Have Not Been Spared,” New York Times, December 28, 2019, accessed February 6, 2022, https://www .nytimes .com/2019 /12 /28 /world /asia /china -xinjiang -children -boarding -schools .html. ; The Economist “How Xinjiang’s Gulag Tears Families Apart,” The Economist, October17, 2020, accessed April 3, 2021, https://www .economist .com /china /2020 /10 /17 /how -xinjiangs-gulag -tears -families -apart. [4] “ Chinese Police Could Prevent Millions of Minority Births in Xinjiang: Report,” France 24, August 6, 2021, accessed August 6, 2021,https://www .france24 .com /en /live-news /20210608 -chinese -policies -could -prevent -millions -of -minority -births -in -xinjiang-report.
Strategic Measures for Countering China’s Global Security Threats and Genocide
Tony Zielinski
He is an Attorney who was elected to public office for 32 consecutive years. He received his Juris Doctor degree from Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
This speech explores the policies of the United States and the free world that led to the rise of Communist China’s economic, military and diplomatic power. In order to address following questions:
Did China’s goals, strategies and behavior change with these new opportunities?
How successful has China been implementing these new strategies? What does the objective data tell us?
If present trends continue unabated, how great is the Communist China threat to freedom and peace?
What strategies need to be changed to protect world freedom and peace?
What barriers are in place to challenge any potential changes needed to protect world freedom and peace?
What are the specific steps needed to implement any needed change?
